Boaphile vs Animal Plastics

[Reinz]

While I have no experience with the plastic BoaMasters, I do with the melamine. In a word, stay away, run away!

These are EXTREMELY heavy, but if you ever wanted to stack a truck on one you probably could.

AP copies. Don’t do it unless you really know the builder’s skills well. My guy made shortcuts that had I have had to redo over time. I learned the hard way here. I now have more $ tied up in these 2 than if I bought 3 AP 4x2’s.

AP is the the clear winner for me. That’s why I keep reordering. Yeah they are slower than a slug, but I KNOW THAT and plan accordingly.

They are the toughest in the plastic category and have the best options FOR ME.

Hard to assemble? Heavy? Compared to..... I built a 6 foot T-25 and an A-25 4x4 with one arm a few days after having 4 surgeries on my strong arm and hand. I even stacked that T-25 on top of a stack of 2 T-25s.
Im not bragging on my strength. On the contrary, I’m an old fat man way beyond his prime.


Everybody has different needs as well as time constraints. I don’t think that you will be unhappy with any of the PVC cages mentioned in the late few threads posted. For me and my big snakes, I doubt that I will ever order anything but AP.

[dakski]

I have: 2 Boaphiles
4 AP, plus 2 more on order since Oct
1 BoaMaster melamine
2 copies of AP

My favorites are the AP and Boaphiles (BP) with more lean toward AP.

I absolutely LOVE the thick drop down doors on the BP. It really helps with ease of cleaning, changing water bowls, or pulling the snake out.

I have a Boa that is just as vicious as any Retic at feeding time. (I have helped feed Mainlands and SD/D at a local breeder). I find the drop down door is not a problem. If I can’t enter the food from the opposing door, I just slide it in as far away from the snake as possible, then close the door with just enough room to slide my 16 inch hemostats across toward the Boa. Thus, the drop down door can be used as a shield just as easily as sliding doors.

BP hardware: I have one cage with Black, one standard. They both have stainless steel hardware on the hinges on the inside of the cage. On the outside, the nonblack hinges have minor oxidation. Of course the black just looks much better, but overall a minor issue.

Now the Cons; someone said lighter weight material means less sag while stacking. Yes, only if you are stacking BPs! Otherwise anything else on a BP will cause sagging. You can put most anything on an AP and it will not sag.

The other problem with BP is it is too thin to mount anything with screws that are short enough without protruding. If you think that you may want a RHP at some point you better order it installed by them with their special reinforcement for horizontal mounting. I had to use through bolts after the fact to mount a different RHP. This means that I can not stack on that cage. Not that I would anyway, the top is soooo caved in, it is beyond sagging.

Lastly, height limitations on BP. I just prefer higher cages than they offer.

Since this his is a long post, I will stop here and post about the others separately.

Great info! Thank you.

I would be interested to see what you think of the newer BP tanks.

I have 5 stacked, and no problems so far, but as you say, I am stacking BP on BP and they are 3X2' joined to make 6X2'.

The height of my snake tanks (12 inch) can be annoying, however, I have limited space and a 6.5FT ceiling!. The stacking worked perfect with a 12 inch base, 4 6X2X1' and one 6X2X1.5' for Frank, my BTS who needs UVB.

So, in my case, wanting to stack and save space, but still have 5!!!! tanks, that worked out great for me. I know this is unique.

You also mention everything is pre-assembled or beware with BP. I liked that component. However, one of my female geckos, Cleo, became aggressive towards her two sisters right after I ordered the BP tanks. It got worse in the new tank.

I had to remove her (the other two females get along fine and they all grew up together). Jeff sent me dividers (free of charge and with longer bolts) and I paid him for another RHP and thermostat (double thermostat). When he sent the RHP, he sent it with the mounting plate, screws already in the RHP, and gave me instruction (verbally) of how to install and what glue to use etc. It could not have been easier to add a (admittedly his) RHP. My father in law drilled the holes for me as that is not my forte. He has the touch.

So now, not from BP directly, I have two 3X2X1' for my geckos as part of the 6X2' stack.

So, that worked out fine. I am not sure if that's a new thing for Jeff/BP, or not. Again, I was very happy with is customer service.

Thanks again. Good to know from someone who has used both!

[Reinz]

Dakski, You have an awesome setup, it looks fantastic. I’m sure you are the envy of many.

If I came across negative on the pre-assembly of BP I did not mean to that is a huge plus!

Dummy me never thought about using glue. Probably because most glues and heat don’t go together well. But that mounting plate probably makes a big difference.

You are so right, everyone has different criteria. One shoe does not fit all.

[AbsoluteApril]

I had a 5 stack of Boaphile 4x2s, got them in 2002 and sold them in 2014 - they held up great. Details and photos can still be seen at my ad on fauna: http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...d.php?t=479181
Photobucket so may not show:

I never had any staining or odor issues with them, they housed boas. If he changed the material used since then, then I don't know but with those I never had any issues. Never had any big issues with sagging either thank goodness. The hardware did rust (bolts/nuts and screws are easy to replace though). I like the drop down doors but I did have an issue with an escape. I used large heavy ceramic water bowls in these, usually in the middle of the cage, and my largest boa (who was a known escape artist) figured out she could leverage her body against the heavy dish to push out the middle of the door and squeezed out. (coming home to see my 7' boa's locked cage empty was quite a shock haha). I moved her into a ProLine after that, none of my other boas figured it out luckily. So my advise for a single drop down door is to add an extra latch in the middle to keep them secure.

I have some AP tub racks and have been really impressed with the quality of those. BF's dad uses AP caging for all his snakes and I like them so far.

I originally sold the Boaphiles because all the herpcages my ATBs are in are white and I liked Proline (NW Constrictors) caging that I already had and wanted everything to match white. The old Proline caging is great but does sag if anything heavy is put on top (learned this the hard way) even with the center divide. I got some of his new style cage stacks but he changed the material used which is now quite porous and I have had issues with staining which I am not happy about.

So I got a Freedom Breeder rack to replace the Boaphiles which I've been using for the last 4 years and it just isn't working for me. My set up/room doesn't allow me to full pull out the drawers and I hate the rounded corners with the bedding I use. I will be selling that (hopefully) before I move and getting some AP caging instead. Looks like I'll be back to having both white and black caging again. Oh well.

Good luck with whatever you decide!

[artgecko]

I originally sold the Boaphiles because all the herpcages my ATBs are in are white and I liked Proline (NW Constrictors) caging that I already had and wanted everything to match white. The old Proline caging is great but does sag if anything heavy is put on top (learned this the hard way) even with the center divide. I got some of his new style cage stacks but he changed the material used which is now quite porous and I have had issues with staining which I am not happy about.

So I got a Freedom Breeder rack to replace the Boaphiles which I've been using for the last 4 years and it just isn't working for me. My set up/room doesn't allow me to full pull out the drawers and I hate the rounded corners with the bedding I use. I will be selling that (hopefully) before I move and getting some AP caging instead. Looks like I'll be back to having both white and black caging again. Oh well.

Good luck with whatever you decide!

AP makes white caging too, so you should still be able to match your existing caging. I hate to read that about the pro-line caging now staining...I had been considering that company for an upgrade cage for my carpet, but not if his material is porous.

[AbsoluteApril]

My AP tub racks are black so it's too late now anyways XD
I'll see if I can get close up photos of the NW cage material to show you the texture.

[Reinz]

I believe that one of my BP is old style and one is new style.
Smell has never been an issue. No bad staining either, though it might take a tad more effort to get the original stain out than AP.

If if someone is having odor issues with a BP I can’t help but wonder if those folks are cleaning up a week or so too late?